6.  The applicant was born in 1968. He originates from Baghdad.
7.  The applicant applied for asylum in Sweden on 5 November 2007. In support of his application, he submitted in essence the following. He is Christian and had been an active member of the Syrian-Orthodox Church. In Baghdad, he had lived with his wife and two children. In February 2007 his wife, who had worked as a university lecturer teaching Arabic, had received a threatening letter, demanding that she quit her job and stating that, as a Christian, she had no right to teach “the language of the Qur’an”. She had not returned to work after receiving the letter. In April 2007 the applicant had been contacted by a man claiming to be a member of the Mujahedin. He had demanded a contribution of 10,000 U.S. dollars to help the group in its fight against the American troops. The applicant had responded that he did not have the money. One week later, the man had called again, saying that the applicant and his family had to convert to Islam if they did not pay the amount. They had gone into hiding at a friend’s home in another part of Baghdad for three weeks and had thereafter returned to their house. On the day of their return, 6 May 2007, three masked and armed men had tried to pull the applicant out of his car when he had been driving his son home. They had assaulted the applicant, taken his son and disappeared in a car. Three days later the son had been found on the street, strangled. The applicant had reported the murder to the police but had received no help as, according to the police, they could not even protect themselves. The applicant and his family had again moved in with friends in another part of the city. In June 2007 an unknown person had called the applicant, saying that he knew the applicant had a daughter and that she risked being subjected to the same treatment as his son. In September 2007 the family had fled to Syria. The applicant had returned to Iraq alone on 14 September 2007 and had left for Sweden on 25 October the same year. In August 2008 his wife had received a call from their previous neighbours, who had stated that the applicant and his family had been searched for at their house on several occasions. In October 2008 the family had been told that their house had been seized by the persons who had searched for them.
8.  On 30 December 2008 the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) rejected the application. The Board pointed out that a year and a half had passed since the alleged incidents and that the security situation in Baghdad had improved during this period. It also stated that the threats against the applicant appeared to be limited to the area where the incidents had occurred and that the applicant could return to a different part of Baghdad.
9.  The applicant appealed, adding that his wife had returned to Baghdad in April 2009 due to the precarious situation in Syria and that she had tried to return to her previous job. On 2 April 2009, however, she had been attacked and assaulted by two masked men, who had threatened to kill her as she had not obeyed their demand that she quit her job. She had reported the incident to the police but had received no help. She had then returned to Syria.
10.  On 4 May 2010 the Migration Court (Migrationsdomstolen) upheld the decision of the Board. The court considered that the letter to the applicant’s wife was clearly connected to her work and held that the applicant had failed to show that there was a connection between the letter, the kidnapping and death of his son in May 2007 and the assault of his wife in April 2009. The incidents rather seemed to be individual and separate acts of criminality related to the general security situation in Iraq at that time. Three years had passed since the initial incidents, during which time the level of sectarian violence had declined.
11.  On 27 August 2010 the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrations-överdomstolen) refused leave to appeal.
12.  In July 2010 the applicant’s wife and his daughter, born in 2002, arrived in Sweden and applied for asylum. The wife essentially gave the same account of events as the applicant, adding that she had returned to Baghdad from Syria in search of a job for a second time in May 2010. She had then been kidnapped and raped by a group of men who had told her that this was her last warning. As she had been raped, it was excluded that her husband would want her back and the couple therefore intended to divorce.
13.  On 22 September 2011 the Migration Board granted the wife and the daughter permanent residence permits in Sweden. The Board had regard to the incidents to which the wife had been exposed when returning to Baghdad on two occasions and concluded that, against the background of the serious violent conflict prevalent in the city, the wife would risk severe assaults if she returned there. Taking further account of her Christian beliefs and status as a single mother without a male network, it found that she had substantiated that she could not rely on the protection of the Iraqi authorities. The Board also considered that there was no reasonable internal flight alternative for her and the daughter.
14.  On 15 December 2011 the Migration Board examined ex officio whether there were any impediments to the enforcement of the applicant’s deportation order. It noted that a residence permit based on family ties could exceptionally be granted if the enforcement of a deportation order would have consequences for a child and it was clear that the family ties were so strong that the permit would have been granted if the application, as prescribed by the standard rules, had been lodged before the arrival in Sweden. It considered that this situation was not at hand in the applicant’s case, as there was no information as to how the relation between the applicant and his wife and daughter would develop.
15.  The applicant has thereafter made two requests for reconsideration, stating that, while he and his wife had been separated for a long time and had been in conflict, they had now decided to reunite. They had moved in with each other and the wife was pregnant with a child expected for October 2012.
16.  On 8 May and 21 September 2012, respectively, the Migration Board again refused to reconsider the case. Taking into account the applicant’s long separation from his wife and their ensuing conflict, it did not find the family ties to be strong enough to grant a residence permit based on an application lodged in Sweden.